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Thought Experiment. Oatmeal.

RadicalDreamer31

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You must consume as much oatmeal as you can. Assume that you don't like eating oatmeal. You can soak it in water, but you can not add anything else to it, you must eat it plain.

Now go into your kitchen, eat all the plain oatmeal you can, report back your method.
 

Rook

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Wait, so must I mentally eat oatmeal, or disregard this as a thought experiment and actually eat oatmeal?

Either way, I choose not to eat oatmeal.
Thou hath impregnated my mind with confusion.
 

Minuend

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I choose to trick Rook into eating oatmeal so I don't have to
 

Jennywocky

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I build an Enlargement ray in my basement.

I make myself 100 feet tall [which I know breaks the laws of physics due to the disparity between height and volume in size increases, but throw me a frickin' bone here people], then proceed to swallow quite a number of containers of oatmeal without even really tasting it since the oatmeal containers are small and my mouth is super-large.

(I do drink water, as all that fiber will kill you otherwise.)
 

Cognisant

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This thread led me to The Oatmeal and then from there to a Bah talk which mentioned the Brazilian Wandering Spider.

We need to get these introduced to Australia :D
 

RadicalDreamer31

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Jennywocky increases her capacity, thus reducing the challenge.

Cognisant distracts and wanders from it.


Also excellent responses.
 

Rook

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Radicaldreamer congratulates everyone that participate in the challenge.

An excellent response.
 

Jennywocky

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Radicaldreamer congratulates everyone that participate in the challenge.

An excellent response.

[bimgx=400]http://kitty.wtf/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Everyones-a-WINNER540966e06957c.jpeg[/bimgx]
 

RadicalDreamer31

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I'll explain myself later. I'm hoping for a larger sample of responses.
 

onesteptwostep

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I would start eating it. Then I would wonder why I should be eating all this oatmeal when I don't even like it. Then I consider the physicality of how the nutrients would outweigh the stress of my disliking of oatmeal. I keep wondering, pondering. I wonder whether this oatmeal is exported from the States. I look at the label. Oh it is. Then I wonder how Hilary Clinton is doing with her campaign. Or did she even start? I wonder if I should spend sometime reading that up or whether I should focus on my work. I wonder why there are dishes in the sink when I swore I washed all of them yesterday. Then I remember to get the mail because I always forget to get the mail. I come back, sit down, and start eating again. I think about how the lighting in this house is terrible and that I need those orange lights instead of this harsh floresent rays of pale and death. I think about the four horsemen. Then I think about Christopher Hitchens. I liked that guy. I keep wondering, pondering, thinking, thinking about useless things I'd probably never materialise or put to use to in real life. After some time, I look down at my bowl. Volia, the oatmeal is gone.

magik

method #2

I get a friend to sit down and eat with me. I complain about how shitty this all tastes, and which in turn causes my friend to suggest we go outside and get a burger or something. I agree. I proceed to throw this crap into the sink and go outside, following my friend. I purposefully forget my wallet, and therefore my friend has to pay for the meal. My friend is pissed, but I get a free meal. Volia, the oatmeal is gone. >:D
 

Brontosaurie

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i will fabricate my oatmeal consumption record and also modify the parameter so that its value increases should it be exceeded by another participant.
 

Shadow Angel

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I eat the oatmeal slowly, trying to see what people who enjoy oatmeal see in it. I try to savor the flavor of it, moving it around in my mouth, feeling the texture and paying attention to the little variations in flavor between individual mouthfuls. As my attention wanders off I attempt to return to simply being aware of the eating of the oatmeal. It is difficult, as there is little in the oatmeal to capture my attention, but I return to my task. Over and over again my mind wanders off and I find myself thinking about other things or paying attention to some other sense in my body, but I return to being aware of the oatmeal. After a while I put the spoon in the bowl and it hits a solid, porcelain surface. I open my eyes (realizing they have been closed this whole time), and look down, seeing that the bowl is empty. I have eaten it all.

I pick up the bowl and walk over to the sink, washing it while finally allowing my mind to wander off and do what it will. Even after I have finished washing it and put the bowl up, I stand there for ten minutes, caught on a particular interesting train of thought about the symbolic connections between oatmeal and the rituals associated with harvest deities in the ancient world. Then I realize I've been standing next to the sink for ten minutes without moving a muscle, and I go back to the table and sit down, and return to my train of thought.

The next morning, I feel an odd craving for oatmeal.
 
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Single day time limit; I'd just wait until I was hungry and eat until I was full. Challenged to eat in quantity I'd use the same strategy and just eat until it came back up, maybe do what I could between eating sessions to burn off the calories and recycle capacity. If money were involved I'd even go the laxative route.

No time limit = just eat a bowl for breakfast every day and bet on most people not being able to put up with the blandness. Which leads me to ask why some are bothered by the lack of flavor/adulterants? Lately I've even been eating mine uncooked, though with milk... but water isn't too much of a stretch. I don't like it, but it's there.
 

RadicalDreamer31

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The experiment is to see how a sample of volunteers (you) respond when given an unpleasant task. Eating large quantities of plain oatmeal is an unpleasant task.

'Eating oatmeal' is a metaphor for any other unpleasant type of task one might encounter; studying, working, exercise, cleaning, socializing, putting on pants. Whatever it is for YOU that causes feelings of dread and apprehension.

In life we face unpleasant tasks all the time. Tasks may be boring, uncomfortable, inconvenient, confusing, unfair, risky, absurd, pointless, drawn out in time, or a myriad of other things causing the sensation of apprehension within you. Nevertheless, these tasks must be done if one wishes to reap the benefits of them and get on with life(more tasks).

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These are the strategies, you the sample, provided. One could imagine these strategies being applied to all sorts of tasks.

Methods of avoidance. No successful completion.
- Just don't do it.

  • via Rook - "I choose not to"
  • via onesteptwostep - [method #2]

- Distract oneself from the task, WITHOUT attempt.

  • via Cognisant - (actually got distracted!)

- Question the validity of the task, and quit.

  • via onesteptwostep - "I proceed to throw this crap into the sink and go outside"
  • (this is my reality)

Methods of deference.
- Get someone else to do it.

  • via Minuend - "trick Rook into"

Plausibly successful methods.
- Modify ones own attributes to handle the task more adequately.

  • via Jennywocky - [enlargement ray]

- Distract oneself from the task, DURING attempt.

  • via onesteptwostep

- Persuade through rationalization.

  • via onesteptwostep - "nutrients would outweigh the stress"

- Gamify and incentivize (I think...)

  • via Brontosaurie

- Sheer force of will.

  • via TheHabitDoctor - [single day time limit]

- Build a tolerance / get accustomed to.

  • via Shadow Angel - "savor the flavor; I feel an odd craving for oatmeal."
  • via TheHabitDoctor - "I don't like it, but it's there."

- Break big task into smaller more manageable tasks.

  • via TheHabitDoctor - "just eat a bowl for breakfast every day"
(Thank you to those who participated. Your input WAS excellent for my purposes)

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There is a good selection of strategies here. You've always known how to do something difficult and yet beneficial. In the case of oatmeal, you do not eat it because I told you to, you eat it because it's healthy! But like Rook, more often than not, we choose against that action.

Why we you make this choice?. Why don't you eat your oatmeal, or read great literature, or work hard, or put on some pants, or whatever your thing is. Why don't you do that thing(s) that will improve the quality of your life and earn you accolades? Lack of time? No. Lack of calories? No. Lack of ability? No. Lack of any other resource? No.

Because the task is unpleasant to you. (And most other persons as well)

We don't have a lack of reason, motivation, skill, or will. We have a lack of tolerance for the unpleasant. We are afflicted by an aversion to exertion. A tug-o-war between our instinctive response to conserve ourselves and knowing that expending ourself is of more use to our objectives.

Merit is found in those who can tolerate what is unpleasant yet beneficial. Studying, exercising, creating, leading, researching, fighting for a cause, cultivating the soil, whatever.

So, I have come to think, if one can enthusiastically and gleefully work through large quantities of what is typically unpleasant, indefinitely, then respect and accolades would abound. Because no one else can tolerate stepping outside of their comfort zone for very long, or risk compromising their physical, mental, emotional, social homeostasis. Mind you, conceptually, math is easier than art. However the former is oft an undesirable activity. And this is why you find too few great mathematicians and great artists so numerous they claw at each others throats for commissions.

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Personal disclosure:

I fucking hate doing shit. I have all the freedom and resources in the world, and yet I allow myself to rot and fade into obscurity. My life could be worth something, I could have it all. These are things I want, and all it takes is eating plain oatmeal, everyday as much as I can, indefinitely.

Oatmeal is oatmeal. If I can not change the substance, can I change my experience of it? Can oatmeal taste to me like steak? Can I find a system the binds me, contracts me into consuming my metaphorical oatmeal?

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TL;DR: I won a ton of oats in a sweepstakes. I'm trying to make good use of it. I'm crowd-sourcing ideas. (METAPHOR!!!)

Hopefully you didn't find this as banal and mundane as oatmeal.
 
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Oatmeal is oatmeal. If I can not change the substance, can I change my experience of it? Can oatmeal taste to me like steak? Can I find a system the binds me, contracts me into consuming my metaphorical oatmeal?
I think you excluded the answer in the OP. Subconsciously?

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=pimp+ramen

Pimp your oatmeal. Mix in things you enjoy, but don't oversaturate it. The trick to this is to force yourself to eat plain oatmeal for weeks and make the things you enjoy generally unavailable to you until you come to appreciate the oatmeal as the only thing you have left. Then start pimping.

This comes from a man who survived on canned spinach, rice, cucumbers, diced tomatoes, pinto beans, coffee, and water for 2 years. *continues doing his taxes*
 
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